We've all heard the term used numerous times, from the cover of the prominent publications to speeches by Fortune 500 CEOs and world leaders: "Data is the new oil." While data and oil can both generate value, the parallels stop there. Unfortunately, treating data like oil has led to some governments taking an approach that results in hoarding data in silos, locked behind borders. The result? A reduction of both economic and social benefits. Let's take a few examples to shine some light on why data is not the new oil.

There is a fixed amount of oil on our planet to be extracted. Unlike oil, increasing amounts of data are being generated at a hard to fathom exponential pace: in the next 2 years, 40 zettabytes of data will be created. This amount is so large that there is really no useful framing exercise to demonstrate the size and scope. 40 zettabytes is roughly equivalent to 4 million years of HD video or five billion Libraries of Congress.

The value of oil comes from scarcity and the difficulty of extracting oil from new untapped locations. However, it is increasingly easy to produce massive amounts of data. For example, data is both created and used by autonomous vehicles interacting with a smart city's connected infrastructure. In San Francisco alone there are 470,000 registered cars (not including buses, motorcycles, or other commercial vehicles). If even only 25% of these cars were autonomous, it would result in the same data produced yearly as about 300,000,000 Internet users or roughly all of Twitter. Imagine that scaled for an entire country and it is easy to understand that data is not in short supply.

Data can be re-used, oil is single use

Oil is also a single use commodity, while data can be re-used and shared for new purposes and insights. Recently, data from a clinical trial from drugs commonly used to treat heart disease was used as part of research to discover a second use for destroying a protein associated with nearly half of all cancers. Combining data generated by doctors in clinics with data from scientific researcher is powering innovation in cancer research and informing more precise treatment plans. Adding more oil doesn't result in getting better quality oil.

Unlike oil, the value of data doesn't grow merely by accumulating more. It is the insights generated through analytics and combinations of different data sets that generate the real value.

Data also needs to be collected and maintained in a usable and accessible format in order to achieve these economic benefits. Currently, a staggeringly low 10% of all data is collected in a format that allows for easy analysis and sharing. The more data collected, the greater the complexity of the IT system needed to extract value and maintain proper protection. Merely collecting more and more data, without a clear use or data governance plan, results in more of a cost and liability than asset. There is the risk factor of being exposed to unauthorized access or a hack. And, servers to host the data are costly; costs which are increased by anywhere from 10% - 60% if there are requirements that the data be localized within a specific jurisdiction.

As long as privacy and security are maintained, restricting and storing data behind borders doesn't just result in economic detriment - where the movement of data across borders generates yearly global economic gains equivalent to the GDP of France - but also hinders broader social good. In addition to the earlier examples on improved cancer treatment, data transfers are an essential component of creating benefits across the world, ranging from ensuring sustainable and healthy oceans to providing disaster relief. If data was stuck in one location, we wouldn't be able to provide a quick and easy way to let loved ones know you are safe during recent terrorist attacks.

So the next time you hear someone say "data is the new oil," ask them when the earth will have no more data to extract.

Adam has worked extensively on issues related to digital trade, data privacy, and cross-border data flows as Senior Director and Policy Counsel at the US Chamber of Commerce. He helped build an international digital policy portfolio and led business community engagement during the US-EU Privacy Shield renegotiation. Prior to that, he worked at EY on public policy issues and served as a Presidential Management Fellow with the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service.

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.